Episode 1205: Baseball on the Brain
Date April 19, 2018 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Shohei Ohtani’s blister, the Braves signing Jose Bautista as a third baseman, and Oakland’s well-attended free-admission game, then talk to two authors of new books about what happens in baseball players’ brains: Zach Schonbrun, author of The Performance Cortex: How Neuroscience is Redefining Athletic Genius (11:58), and former MLB pitcher (and current Giants mental skills coach) Bob Tewksbury, author of Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball (41:04). Topics * Reason for picking baseball for neuroscience study * Interest by teams and why * Differences in different neuroscience scouting companies. * How can this be used to evaluate potential * Will this become more popular in player procurement or development? * Pitch clock effect on players * Psychological profiles of players vs the rest of us * Are players still reluctant to talk to a mental skills coach? * How are services solicited? * Cultural divide? * Differences in the players who have gotten big contracts and not * How hard is it to get buy in for former players * Effect of low pay in minors on psyche. * Mental state of a pitcher * More benefit to players in minors or majors? * Bob vs Mark McGuire * Bob vs Barry Bonds * Mound visits Intro Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun" Interstitials The Action, "Brain" Beulah, "Don’t Forget to Breathe" Outro Superchunk, "Lost My Brain" Banter * Effectively Ohtani * Braves sign Jose Bautista * A’s “sellout” Notes * Shohei Ohtani had a blister in last start and was pulled after 2 innings. * Jose Bautista is slated at third base, played 38 games there last year. * Jeff is curious about how the economics of the free A’s game worked out. * “The hitting side of baseball is the most clean for data" - Zach * The biggest hurdle is the time needed to make it work. * Theo Epstein was in on this earliest. * An EEG is used to measure players response time. * Mookie Betts was a beneficiary to this science. * This is a metric that can be read before the swing. * There are studies that say if you warm up and then not do anything your performance suffers. * Zach has no doubt neuroscience will be involved heavily in sports soon. * Its part of CBA to have a mental skills coach on staff. * Bob thinks the mental state of minor league players would improve with a more livable wage. * Bob thinks mental skills is more important in minor leagues, but the need is also in majors. * Bob threw Mark McGwire an eephus pitch and he grounded out and and popped out. * Bob only allowed Barry Bonds 3 home runs. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1205: Baseball on the Brain * How Do Athletes' Brains Control Their Movements? by Zach Schonbrun * Bob Tewksbury's personal site Category:Episodes Category:Guest Episodes